The present invention relates to a system for subdividing building space, and more particularly relates to a reconfigurable apparatus including reconfigurable partition panels and furnishing components adapted to maximize floor space in a work area while also minimizing the footprint of the system and while maintaining the functionality and flexibility of the system.
A trend in modern offices and work environments is to reduce the size of individual offices and work areas, and to reduce the physical space that the apparatus forming the offices and work areas takes up (i.e. reduce their "footprint"). There can be many reasons to reduce the size of work areas, including increasing office density in order to reduce or control overall costs, to reduce individual workspace in order to free up space for group/team activities, and/or to provide office space or work space for additional employees. However, as office sizes are reduced, particularly as office sizes are reduced to a 6 feet by 6 feet area or less, spacial problems are encountered. Efficient use of storage space and work space becomes critical, as does user flexibility and control over organization of material and work flow. The work process must be designed to support natural and efficient storage of work papers in piles or folders, yet must allow the user to create context-specific work zones. One way of meeting this need is to provide custom-designed and custom-built furniture adapted for a particular use. But such custom furniture is not flexible and not reconfigurable, and thus is not satisfactory when an office or work area is reconfigured. Further, "old" furniture such as that used in the previous larger offices before the reconfiguration was done, either doesn't fit, or results in an oddly/inefficiently organized office having gaps around the furniture that are unusable or difficult to access. At the same time, it is not economically possible to offer customized furniture adapted to fit into each incrementally smaller size of office or work area, nor is it economically feasible to purchase new specially-sized furniture every time an office reconfiguration is done. Still further, the furniture construction should preferably provide for easy transition from personal to public workspace, but in a way making it easy to keep the office or workspace clean and neat, which presently known furniture often cannot do.
Traditional office furniture systems and also many "modern" office systems include a large worksurface, often 30 inches to 36 inches deep for example. While a large worksurface allows the user to spread papers around, we have discovered that this large worksurface is not nearly as efficient as has been historically assumed. A reason is because a typical office worker only utilizes about 3 square feet (i.e. about 1 foot 6 inches by 2 feet) in the center and front of the worksurface as a work area, and utilizes the remaining perimeter area (which can be 10 to 15 square feet in a 6 foot wide desk, for example) for storage of papers or other materials. The 10 to 15 square feet of storage area is difficult to reach or at least not easily reachable. Further, all of the storage is horizontal, thus taking up valuable floor space, even though the stored papers and other materials may be used only for particular tasks and not all tasks. Often smaller desks are forced onto workers, the thought being that the smaller desks have all of the workspace needed for the workers and also have drawers for storage. However, the smaller desks do not have sufficient workspace for tasks that require multiple papers to be spread out, particularly if other items are also on the desk. Further, the drawers limit knee space, making the office restrictive, and forcing a worker to work only from a center of the desk. Lighting can also be a significant problem, since small offices result in dark shadowy areas with limited room for chair movement and with limited visual access to files stored in low areas.
A particularly difficult and illusive problem with small offices is a feeling of crampedness and lack of room, and the related poor moral of workers who have to use such small offices. Many small offices, particularly offices of 6 feet by 6 feet and smaller, are noticeably tight and difficult to maneuver in, such that workers prefer not to spend time in them. Further, existing furniture can undesirably limit the workers' ability to customize or specialize their office to satisfy the need of a natural work flow. These problems are exacerbated by many factors, including office arrangements that physically partially enclose or trap the worker in the office, office arrangements that provide poor visual or physical access to storage areas, furniture that is not multifunctional and/or not flexible or reconfigurable for optimal efficiency and natural work flow, and in particular a work arrangement that does not provide an efficient workspace-to-storage-space logic.
Accordingly, a furniture construction solving the aforementioned problems is desired.